I particularly like this one from part four:

Embrace your weirdness.
Transform your poems
into arias, and sing.

Anyway.  That complaint aside, there are a couple of blogs with truncated feeds for which I make an exception – Terri Windling’s is one of them.

And I’m finding myself very glad that I started reading it again.  She’s been posting a fascinating series of photos submitted to her by a range of creative types – On Your Desk.  That link takes you to all of the entries posted under the tag – go and check them out.

This also has me kind of enthused to get my writing area prettied up a little.  Stay tuned for photos to come.

An awesome list of YA dystopic fiction.

Nanowrimo workshop: character.

Nanowrimo workshop: setting.

The essential parts of a novel synopsis.

On hating female characters.

Finding an agent, Australia-style.

What’s safe to syndicate online. (especially important if you’re thinking of publishing chapters of novels on your website)

Writing the novel that’s in you (and not for the market).

Automatically formatting your novel in Word.

One year of great writing advice.

You should be reading the entirety of the Freelancer’s Survival Guide if you’re not already.

“…failures are opportunities.

Opportunities to start over. Opportunities to make changes. Opportunities to learn.”

On Doing Nothing

“How are we going to feel that tap on the shoulder…that leads us to new stories, new subject matter, if we’re scrambling the hamster wheel of busy-ness?”

17 reasons manuscripts are rejected.

Some of these are major dealbreakers for me as a reader.  And I’ve come across far too many of them in published books – I get especially annoyed at sliding points of view.  I can only imagine what agents and publishers get in their slush some days.

5 lessons I’ve learned about writing dialogue in fiction.

Writing excuses.

Louisa May Alcott didn’t need a computer.

15 must-read blogs for writers.

Tighten up your manuscript!

Advice on Novel Writing.

If You Love a Writer.

Help! I can’t seem to finish my book.

Defining urban fantasy.

What I wish I had known before writing my first book.

- Does the main plot arc initiate close enough to the beginning that you won’t lose the reader?
- Does your protagonist alternate between up and down moments, with the most intense towards the end?
- Are you able to trace the major plot arcs throughout the book? Do they have up and down moments?
- Do you have enough conflict?
- Does the reader see both the best and worst characteristics of your main characters?
- Do your characters have backstories and histories? Do these impact the plot?
- Is the pacing correct for your genre? Is it consistent?
- Is your voice consistent? Is it overly chatty or sarcastic?
- Is the tense completely consistent? Is the perspective consistent?
- Is there sufficient description that your reader feels grounded in the characters’ world?
- Is there too much description? (David R. Slayton)
- Are momentous events given the weight they deserve?
- Look closely at each chapter. If you can take out a chapter and the plot will still make sense, is it really necessary? Should some events be folded in with others?
- Do the relationships between your characters develop and change and become more complicated as the book goes on?
- What do your characters want? Is it apparent to the reader? Do they have both conscious and unconscious motivations?
- Do you know what your writing tics are? Do you overuse adverbs, metaphors, facial expressions, non-”said” dialogue tags, or interjections? Have you removed them?
- Do you overuse certain words or phrases? Is your word choice perfect throughout?
- Does your book come to a completely satisfying conclusion? Does it feel rushed?
- Do your main characters emerge from the book irrevocably changed?
- Are your characters distinguishable? Does it make sense to combine minor characters? (Kiersten)
- Do each of your scenes make dramatic sense on their own as well as move the overall plot forward? (Pete Peterson)